


a moment in starlight

by ronsenburg



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Comfort, I have a lot of feelings you guys, M/M, Post-Season/Series 06, Very Self Indulgent Prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 05:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14994314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronsenburg/pseuds/ronsenburg
Summary: "We’re glad you’re back,” Keith says, and Shiro looks up and into his eyes with the softest smile. It is the barest lifting of the corner of his lips, exhaustion so heavy in Shiro’s features that he is only just able to stay conscious, let alone upright. But in it, Keith can see the gratitude and pride that echoes through his words when he manages a simpleyou found me.A brief heart to heart between Shiro and Keith after the events of season 6.





	a moment in starlight

 

"We’re glad you’re back,” Keith says, and Shiro looks up and into his eyes with the softest smile. It is the barest lifting of the corner of his lips, exhaustion so heavy in Shiro’s features that he is only just able to stay conscious, let alone upright. But in it, Keith can see the gratitude and pride that echoes through his words when he manages a simple _you found me_. Can feel the suffusing warmth of affection, so radiant that Keith can trace the path it takes as it flows from Shiro’s body cradled protectively in his arms and directly into Keith’s chest. It stays there, burning like a gently glowing ember until Shiro’s eyes have slipped shut again, this time in unfettered sleep.

And Shiro sleeps for what feels like an age. Bundled in the back of Black’s cockpit, the light from the glowing consoles cast a strange, cool hue on his pale hair. It reflects the back in prismatic flashes of varying colors when Shiro shifts in slumber, sometimes an icy blue or a wan yellow, but more often than not the bright and pale white of the distant stars that blink from beyond Black’s view screen. It suits him.

“You should sleep too,” Krolia says when she enters sometime later, her voice as close to gentle as she is able to make it. Even after two years, mothering doesn’t come easily to her. She is, first and foremost, a warrior; her love is shown through fierce gestures of devotion, not the soft pressure of a reassuring touch or a tender word.

“Yeah, in a minute,” Keith agrees but makes no move to leave Shiro’s side. Krolia crosses her arms across her chest, body language confrontational, as though she is about to insist. “I promise.”

He is smiling without really meaning to, hasn’t been able to stop since the moment Shiro had opened his eyes. It’s a tiny thing, but it enough that Krolia pauses, her raised brows giving away her surprise. For a moment, her glance lingers on Keith’s hand, wrapped loosely around Shiro’s where it rests against his chest, their entwined fingers rising and falling with each of Shiro’s still shallow breaths. Keith watches as her eyes soften. She nods once before leaving the room without another word.

The sound of his mother’s boots against the metal floor is muffled by the various bits of castle memorandum strewn about and the bay door sliding shut is little more than a hiss of air, but Shiro still stirs at the sound, his brows drawing tightly together as he blinks back into consciousness.

“Hey,” Keith says softly when Shiro’s eyes find his in the dim starlight. They are the same deep brown Keith remembers, though they seem darker now contrasted with the pale strands of hair that fall down around the edges of his face.

“Hey,” Shiro returns, and it sounds more like the exhalation of a long-held breath than a greeting. But there is that same smile again, still soft and fragile but full of so many emotions that Keith feels dizzy trying to read each one in his glance.

“How’re you feeling?” he asks instead.

Shiro’s shoulders shift, his eye falling down to the empty space at his right side before he carefully extracts his fingers from where the rest under Keith’s and places his palm against the ground. “Heavy,” he returns, laughing a little under his breath to cover up the grimace of pain that flits across his face at the movements, “I guess I was more used to the astral plane than I thought.”

“Don’t overdo it.” For a moment, he considers reaching out a hand to steady Shiro’s shoulder, to help ease the transition in whatever way he can. But he knows Shiro well enough to understand that this pain is preferable to helplessness, to death. Keith’s hand falls down against his own leg with a gentle noise that’s swallowed in the rustling of Shiro’s moving blankets.

“I should be saying that to you,” Shiro replies when he has managed to push himself into something that resembles an upright position. He reaches out to run a still-gloved thumb over the scar that cuts neatly across the skin of Keith’s cheek; it feels odd, like the ghost of a touch from far away. Keith leans into Shiro’s palm almost unintentionally despite the soft look of concern that steals over Shiro’s features when he adds, “I hurt you.”

“It wasn’t you,” Keith replies simply.

The same body, he thinks distantly, the same hands. But not the same Shiro.

Shiro’s eyes go briefly unfocused, as though they are fixated on something far past the room, beyond where Keith has crouched next to him with his palms splayed against Black’s cool floor. “I remember doing it,” he mutters, so quietly that Keith nearly misses the slight hitch in his breath as he speaks, “I remember everything that happened. Everything I did.”

“ _It wasn’t you_ ,” Keith insists and reaches up a hand to cover Shiro’s with one of his own. The words are fierce enough that Shiro’s eyes snap back to Keith’s from whatever thoughts they’d been lost in, widening discernibly as he searches Keith’s gaze.

Just like he knows Shiro cannot stand to feel useless, Keith knows that Shiro will blame himself for the actions of the clone whose body he has reclaimed, will continue to blame himself even after each and every member of the team insists the responsibility lies with Haggar and her spies. Even if he can forgive himself the direct actions, it was still his body that provided the basis for the clones, his weakness that made the deception possible. Keith has seen the spirals of guilt Shiro turns in firsthand. But he will be there now to offer a hand against the darkness whenever Shiro needs him. He can, at least, do that.

Keith leans forward, pressing their foreheads together gently. It’s an inadequate gesture, one that can’t really convey the reassurance he intends, but it’s a start. He can hear Shiro’s sharp inhalation of surprise, can feel his fingers tense briefly where they rest, still cradling the side of his face.

“Keith…” Shiro starts. It sounds tentative and rough, his voice faltering into nothing but an exhalation of gentle breath at the end.

“You need to rest,” Keith murmurs, “Let me take care of you for once.”

“You already saved me-” Shiro points out softly, his expression unreadable at this distance, “-so many times now I’m starting to lose count.”

“Yeah, well, you saved me first.” He guides Shiro’s hand down to rest against his chest once more, just over his steadily beating heart. “I’m still thanking you for that.”

This is not the body of the man Keith had so reluctantly grown to love under the sun-bleached skies of the Texas desert, he knows that now. This is not the hand that reached for him time and time again to pull him to his feet when he had fallen, that had held him close when grief or fear or anger had brought Keith’s carefully built walls crumbling down before him. These are not the same eyes that had lit up so often in laughter, the same mouth that had taken the time to speak words of encouragement when everyone else had given up on him.

But it is still Shiro in that body, _his_ Shiro.

And that’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! This was my first attempt at writing Keith ever _and it shows_ , but I had to try after a season like that. Come hang out with me on [tumblr](http://ronsenburg.tumblr.com/) if you'd like ❤ Fic requests are always open!


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